Aggregating and curating scholarship from, or on, the open web. Is it possible? Why should we do it? And how? Let's get together to discuss and play with this approach to publishing.

Aggregating and curating web content can be a way to identify new projects for formal publication, distribute work related to your own area of expertise, or share important information within a community. We can talk about the why, and then move on to the how. What is the range of sources and various models? What tools are available?

For the play component, I can demonstrate and provide access to a sandbox with our new PressForward plugin (https://github.com/PressForward/pressforward/wiki/About) , which offers an RSS Reader, collaborative editorial tools, and the ability to republish from within a WordPress dashboard. And if there's interest and time, we can choose some RSS feeds and new content in order to create our own curated publication during the session.

I'm willing to offer a free hands-on workshop on how to use PressBooks, an open-source tool that transforms WordPress content into publications for print and digital devices, including PDF, web-book, Mobi (for Kindle), and ePUB (for iBooks, Nook, etc.)

In addition to walking participants through the steps of creating & exporting their own books with PressBooks, I can also share more about:– how to pair CommentPress and PressBooks for a WordPress-based developmental editing & publishing workflow– requirements for installing both tools on your own self-hosted WordPress.org site– how Anvil Academic will offer these tools to authors for open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly publishing– how to suggest improvements to the developers of CommentPress and PressBooksLearn more at http://CommentPressBooks.trinfocafe.org

So what's the deal? In exchange for this free workshop, I'd ask participants to visit and comment on our digital book-in-progress, Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning. This open-access edited volume explores why & how faculty and students use web-based authoring, annotating, and publishing tools in the liberal arts, and demonstrates a case example of CommentPress and PressBooks. Call for Participation for the Idea & Essay Proposal phase (200-300 words) ends on June 22nd, 2013, but full drafts (1,000-4,000 words) are not due until August 15th. The Center for Teaching & Learning at Trinity College will award $300 subventions to 5 outstanding proposals, with preference given to authors in greater financial need (e.g. students or faculty not in full-time, tenure-track positions). Learn about our editorial process and timeline for the Fall 2013 open peer review and freely-accessible digital publication, possibly with a scholarly press, at:http://WebWriting.trincoll.edu

I'd love to get together and discuss models for collaborative scholarly publishing initiatives, like those that have been established at places like Michigan, Indiana, and Penn State. How are such collaborations structured? How do these collaborations change the nature of work that the participants (e.g., press staff, librarians) do? How do these collaborations change the missions of the involved organizations? What type of infrastructure is necessary to go the way of collaboration for publishing endeavors at a specific university? How do you rally support for such an initiative? How are tech assets roped in and funded?

I'm interested in learning how various publishing operations—large and small, academic and trade—handle the production process from after a manuscript is handed off from acquisitions till you send it to the printer or make a digital product available.

What parts of the process do you do in house, and what parts are handled by freelancers or vendors? Do you review the work done by outside parties, and if so, do you review exhaustively or only sample the work to check for quality?

At what stages do you involve the author/editor? Do any freelancers or vendors interact with authors/editors directly, or do you always mediate the communication?

Note that I have a morning flight and will arrive late to the planning session, but hopefully this gives you enough to go on.

You can choose your own adventure. We have a Law of Two Feet: you can always move to another session, with no hurt feelings allowed.

You can have something to show at the end of the day: participatory making or playing is encouraged. Is there a new software program you’ve been meaning to try? A resource or documentation you’ve been meaning to produce? Do you have an idea and want to write out a spec or scope? You can propose a session, or peel away and work in a smaller group.